Development limits access to Huron Natural Area
Founders of Kitchener’s largest park fear long-term closure of entrance
One of only three entrances to Huron Natural Area, Kitchener’s largest park, is closed to the public, possibly for years.
“They’re saying it’s a safety issue,” said Frank Glew, who was the Waterloo Region District School Board’s co-ordinator of outdoor education for 25 years.
The southeast entrance on Strasburg Road, across from Huron Heights Secondary School, is used by hundreds of people, Glew says.
But since early April, the entrance has “No Trespassing” signs, and a series of three fences run across the path into the park, barring access.
Glew and Tom Clancy, Kitchener’s
head of parks at the time, led the charge to establish the 107-hectare (264-acre) park in 2007. A bronze plaque at the main entrance to the park honours the pair as “visionaries.”
Glew has received several emails about the closure of the Strasburg entrance. “People are very upset about it.”
The access will likely be closed only for about a year, said Michael Milloy, CEO of Gateman Milloy, which has owned the property for about five years. The developer has filed an application to create 10 industrial lots on the vacant land, as well as two roads, one of which would run roughly where the current trail is. Alongside that road would be a permanent trail leading from Strasburg to the Huron Natural Area.
“I would think that road would be built within a year,” Milloy said, depending on when the city approves the plan. Until then, the southeast access will be closed. “Pedestrians and construction and development don’t go together.”
Having more than one access point is important, Clancy says. “Use of the site is off the charts from anything we ever thought.”
The park’s main entrance off Trillium Drive is already busy, and on fine weekends users’ cars spill onto neighbouring streets and businesses. There is a third, less well-known access in the south, off Brittania Crescent and Parkvale Drive.
The southeast entrance also provides easy access to a very special opportunity, Glew said: a boardwalk where a variety of wild birds regularly will feed right from the hands of visitors.
Many people have experienced the delight of having a black-capped chickadees feed from your hand, Glew says, but at this site, all kinds of birds do — red-bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, redbreasted and white-breasted nuthatches.
“It’s unbelievable. I do not think the public realize how rare and special this is. I know of nowhere else this happens,” he said.
“People are just like kids when it happens. The look on their face — they just light up like a Christmas tree.”
Chickadees only live about 2 1/2 years, so if access to that feeding spot is closed for three years or more, Glew fears the chance to feed those birds could be wiped out. “A new generation (of chickadees) isn’t learning to trust humans and feed out of their hands. It takes time to build human trust again, sometimes many years.”
The city has limited information about the closure on its website, saying only, “The trail access point from Strasburg Road is closed due to construction activities in the area. It will be reopened once construction is complete.”
The city has asked the landowner if a temporary trail could give access to the park while the development is underway, said Josh Shea, Kitchener’s manager of forestry and natural areas management. “The trail access that was in place will eventually be re-established … However, this may not be in place for several years as various phases of construction are underway.”
“I fully agree, as you know, with the value of the park and the many benefits it provides to the community,” Shea wrote to Glew. “I am hopeful that we can find some solutions, as the development is likely to take some time to be completed.”
With the world grappling with the climate crisis, it’s more important than ever to make it easy for people to connect with nature, Glew said. “The only way you can get people and kids interested is getting them out in nature. This would be cutting people off from doing that.”